Townsville MP tells Queensland Nickel workers they will get federal funding as soon as possible

UPDATE: Queensland Nickel workers will know within two days whether the government will step in and pay their employee entitlements, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says.

QUEENSLAND Nickel workers will know within two days whether the government will step in and pay their employee entitlements, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says.

Senator Cash said workers were owed $73 million by the company and she would think carefully before deciding whether taxpayer’s money would be spend cleaning up after Clive Palmer.

“It is Clive Palmer’s ultimate responsibility,” she told Sky.

“Clive should not be let off the hook because the government steps in because he has vacated the space. And we should never forget that.

“Clive is responsible for what’s gone on here and she should ultimately be held accountable for this.”

Mr Palmer has repeatedly claimed he stopped being a director of Queensland Nickel when he entered politics, but questions have since been raised over whether he still had control over the company’s funds.

Senator Cash said she received a creditors’ report yesterday and would now decide whether to release Fair Entitlements Guarantee funds to pay workers’ entitlements.

She said she expected to make a decision “within 48 hours”.

“My Department is currently undertaking thorough consideration of that report,” she said.

“It will be providing a brief to me shortly, at which time I will determine whether or not I will exercise my discretion to release the funds early.”

Mr Palmer today released a joint venture agreement in a bid to disprove suggestions he was a shadow director of Queensland Nickel.

“This document will validate the structure of the Queensland Nickel Joint Venture Agreement but in short the report released yesterday is nothing more than a beat up,’’ he said in a statement.

“Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd (QN) was the General Manager and Manager of the Queensland Nickel Joint Venture.

“As a manager, until March 3, 2016, QN had contractually agreed under Clause 4.1 of the Joint Venture Agreement to follow the direction of the Joint Venture Owners Committee in carrying out the Joint Venture.

“The Joint Venture Owners Committee operates through its members to carry out the function of the Joint Venture Owners Committee in accordance with Clause 4.1 of the Queensland Nickel Joint Venture Agreement.”

EARLIER:

HUNDREDS of Queensland Nickel workers made redundant by the company’s collapse will receive federal assistance as quickly as possible, their local MP has assured them.

Some of the workers have been waiting months for their entitlements, unable to access welfare benefits while administrators determine the company’s fate.

“People up here are really angry, people up here are doing it really tough,” government MP Ewen Jones told ABC radio today.

The Government could begin the process of assessing what assistance the workers could expect now that it had received a report from the company’s administrators recommending its liquidation.

“We will be doing that as quickly as humanly possible,” Mr Jones said.

The Townsville MP also took aim at businessman-federal politician Clive Palmer after the administrators found he secretly acted as a shadow director of Queensland Nickel.

Mr Palmer used the company as a piggy bank to prop up his other businesses and spending $21.5 million on donations to his political party, they said in their report.

The findings have been dismissed as “a lie” by the businessman.

“It is galling up here that we have to sit through his performances,” Mr Jones said.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the Australian people needed reminding the issue of worker entitlements was Mr Palmer’s problem.

“Clive is morally obliged, quite frankly, to pay over the entitlements to these workers,” she told ABC radio.

Senator Cash said it was a disgrace that Mr Palmer may get off the hook, and that entitlements of up to $73 million might potentially be covered by taxpayers.